A new series of online learner readiness tutorials is being readily embraced by community colleges, as momentum continues to build around the effort to better prepare California’s students for the realities of online learning.

It has been an eventful summer for the California Community Colleges (CCC) Education Planning Initiative (EPI). Fall terms are beginning across our system, and the hustle and bustle on campuses is engaging students, staff and faculty in a number of ways.

The California Community Colleges (CCC) Common Assessment Initiative (CAI) is seeking volunteers to participate in a work group that will focus on delivery of the new assessment tool being created exclusively for the CCC.

Before I get into the post for this month, I want to sincerely thank the online instructors from the Online Education Initiative (OEI) pilot colleges who will be opening their courses in Canvas this month (some this week!). You have been so patient with us and have worked so hard to get to this point, and I so respect your innovative strength and willingness to step up for the students of the California Community Colleges (CCC).

To help California’s community colleges get the most from participation in the InCommon Federation, Internet2 is offering a workshop for IT staff focused on installation and support of the latest Shibboleth software.

The Foundation for California Community Colleges has redesigned its website, foundationccc.org, as part of continued efforts to streamline access to valuable resources for colleges. Visitors to collegebuys.org can expect to see some welcome improvements.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A California Community Colleges task force has put forth 25 recommendations to strengthen workforce education throughout the 113-college system with the goal of closing the skills gap that employers say is a barrier to filling existing jobs and fueling job creation.

The Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation, and a Strong Economy is comprised of representatives from community colleges, the business community, labor groups, public agencies involved in workforce training, K-12 policymakers, and community-based organizations. It was commissioned to address California’s anticipated shortage of 1 million skilled workers with industry-valued middle-skill degrees, certificates, and credentials.

“These recommendations, if approved by the Board of Governors, will allow community colleges to build on their longstanding success educating California’s workforce and provide our economy with a more responsive framework for meeting industry needs and getting students into good paying jobs,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris. “I want to thank the task force members for their vision and their work developing this comprehensive plan.”

“To ensure that Career Technical Education courses keep pace with the increasing demand for middle skill jobs we need funding targeted to support these programs, which have higher start-up and operational costs,” said Sunita Cooke, chair of the task force and president/superintendent of MiraCosta Community College District.

The task force held 14 regional college and faculty meetings with more than 700 participants in addition to six town hall meetings held across the state that attracted 500 participants who depend on the community colleges for workforce training. Final town hall meetings summarizing all 25 recommendations will be held in Los Angeles on Aug. 25 and in San Francisco on Aug. 27.

To read the full set of recommendations, please go to http://bit.ly/1IpCGOM. The recommendations will go to the Board of Governors as an information item at its September 2015 meeting, and the board will consider taking action on the recommendations in November.

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy framework and the Student Success Initiative provided the foundation to launch this task force and have also been working to increase workforce and economic competitiveness. These measures are necessary in light of statistics indicating that there will be 6.3 million job openings in California through 2020, of which 2 million jobs will require a post-secondary certificate or associate degree.

The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation composed of 72 districts and 113 colleges serving 2.1 million students per year. Community colleges supply workforce training, basic skills education and prepare students for transfer to four-year institutions. The Chancellor’s Office provides leadership, advocacy and support under the direction of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. For more information about the community colleges, please visit http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/, https://www.facebook.com/CACommColleges, or https://twitter.com/CalCommColleges.

A new tool to support online student success is now available free to all 113 California Community Colleges (CCC), made possible as part of the systemwide Online Education Initiative (OEI).

The OEI Online Student Readiness Tutorials were specifically designed to be easy for California colleges to include in existing online courses and learning environments.

The OEI team encourages colleges statewide to include the new readiness solutions in their online course offerings or at any point they see as appropriate for preparing students to be successful. Providing access for students is as easy as providing a single link to the combined resources. Links are also available for individual components of the tutorials should a college wish to segment resources based on student need.